Running instead of Shooting

I haven't been very active updating this blog recently.  There's a pretty good reason for that.  My free time has been taken up by my other hobby - running.  I like to run.  A lot.  I like to race.  A lot.  Consequently I like to run marathons.  A lot.

Ran the Columbus Marathon yesterday.  It was my 57th or 58th marathon.  At this point I've kind of lost track.  But the highlight is that once again for the first time in three years I ran fast enough to qualify to run the 2010 Boston Marathon.  For those who don't know, Boston is one of the most prestigious races in the world.  Next year will be the 114th running of the race and the fourth time I'll have the privilege of running it.  Boston is also one of the very few marathons that you must qualify to run.  The vast majority of marathons, including the major ones like Chicago, New York and London are all races open to the general public.  Register early enough (or be lucky enough to have your name pulled from the lottery draw) and you can run the race.  Not Boston.  There are very strict qualifying standards that must be met before you are allowed to run the race.  Running Boston means you've made it in with the best of the best.  Many people these days take on and complete the challenge of the marathon.  Few will every qualify for Boston.  For distance guys like me running a Boston qualifier (a BQ) is like making it into the Super Bowl.  And running the race is like playing in the Super Bowl with it's million fans lining every inch of the 26.2 mile course.  Yep there's nothing better for a marathoner than running than Boston.  And I'm going back.

So once my legs aren't so sore I'll get back out there shooting fall foliage.  But in the back of my mind you can bet I'm planning my trip to Beantown.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
October 19, 2009

Fall Colors

Here in southwest Ohio it's still a little early for the fall colors to be out.  Reports show good colors in the north eastern part of the state but we're still a couple of weeks away.  But unlike last year we had a lot of rain this summer which should yield a lot of brilliant colors in the trees and leaves that hang around long enough to get their picture taken.  (Last year was so dry that the fall color season was really short before all the leaves were on the ground.)

In lieu of my typical early morning run I decided to hit the local park and see what the trees were showing me.  Still mostly green but just enough colors to take a few interesting shots.  For the first time I took two cameras out with me to shoot.  On my Olympus Pen I mounted the 17mm pancake for it wide view of the world but also loaded up my Canon 40D with my longest Canon 300mm f/4 L prime telephoto as I was hoping for some wildlife shots as well as the trees.

The ever present deer population in the park all must have been sleeping in as there were none to be seen and I really don't enjoy the challenge of bird photography so I stuck to the trees and some detail work.  With a little bit of help in Lightroom to soften up a few of the images and pop the colors a bit I was happy with the results.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
October 5, 2009

Travel Photography: This is why I bought the Pen

Last weekend we did a little traveling, heading to Orlando to one of our favorite places both to visit and to run - Walt Disney World!  We head there at least once a year in January to run the annual marathon but this time the event was the Everest Expedition Challenge Race, a combination 5K run, obstacle course and scavenger hunt all run through the Animal Kingdom park.

As usual we had a great time and as usual my camera was at my side most of the trip.  This is exactly what I had in mind when I bought the Olympus Pen E-P1 camera.  Small enough to carry all day but high enough quality to take great pictures.

In the world of airline baggage fees we're learning how to travel with less and pack lighter and the camera equipment was no exception.  In my backpack along with a couple of magazines and my HP 5101 netbook was packed the Pen with the 17mm pancake prime lens attached.  Knowing that this camera is still a little too large to be truly "pocketable" I also packed my small North Face butt pack  loaded with the FL-14 flash unit, 14-45mm zoom, spare battery and charger.  That all was packed surrounded by clothes in the small suitcase which we carried on board the plane.

So how did the Pen do as the main camera for one more travel destination?  In a word "fantastic".  I continue to be both impressed and delighted with this little camera.  I could have done without bringing the zoom lens down as I left the pancake on the entire trip, leaving the second lens in the hotel room and never missed it once.  I really didn't experience any framing issues shooting in the bright Florida sunshine even though I opted to no bring the little viewfinder attachment that matches the pancake lens.  Occasionally I had to shade the screen with my hand to be able to see it but never missed a shot.  About the only issue I had was the fact that during the day the flash had to stay on the camera to be used for fill.  With the flash on the camera would still fit in the butt pack but I was always concerned about banging it against something, causing damage to one of the pieces.

So for the second trip since acquiring the Pen it's proved it's worth as a great little travel camera.  I'm still a couple of lens choices short of where I'd like to be, still wanting to get a dedicated macro and also a fisheye just for fun.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
October 2, 2009

Picture of the Day - September 22

I didn't take this photo.  I friend of mine, Kathy Wicks did.  (Kathy, I hope you don't mind it being shown here.)  She showed it to me and I thought it was just a very cool shot.  I've got no info about it other than I know it was taken through her car windshield with some type of point-and-shoot compact camera.  Another good example of how any camera can take an excellent photo.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
September 22, 2009

Help for living without a viewfinder

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that a lot of the focus so far has been documenting my experiences with the new Olympus Pen E-P1 camera.  I've been doing this as it's a brand new camera in a brand new category and I believe will be a real game changer for many photographers.  Having DSLR quality and interchangable lenses in a package just slightly larger than most point and shoot systems is a real winner in my book.  To date I've been quite impressed with the system and while I'm not ready to go sell all my Canon gear on eBay I am more than happy to leave it at home when going out to shoot or especially when doing some travel.

But the new system is not perfect.  The major complaints so far voiced on many opinion pages have centered around the camera's very average auto-focus time, the lack of a built in flash and the lack of a built in viewfinder.  Olympus has already been working on the auto-focus issue a bit as new firmware was recently released to help with that issue.  Honestly, given the way I'm using the camera (i.e. I'm not trying to capture sports or fast moving action) I've really not had much issue with it.  It's way slower than my top of the line Canon "L" lenses but about on par with the consumer grade Tamron's and Sigma's (and even Canon kit) lenses.  I'd say not perfect, but certainly in the "acceptable" range.  As to the issue of no built in flash, that's just a non-issue to me.  When I bought the camera I also ponied up an extra $100 for the FL-14 external flash.  It's very sleek, very small and looks great on the camera.  I also get better results with it than I would expect out of any "pop up" flash.  And truthfully I don't usually like to use flash anyways.  I'm much happier with my photography when it's done in natural light.  (I also don't mind carrying the little flash unit in my bag, but that is because I'll usually have all the gear in a small bag so I can also take the extra lenses.  If not I'll just pop the flash on the camera before I head out if I think there's a chance I might need it.)  End of story.  No big deal.

But the missing viewfinder.  Hmmm....  When I was purchaing with my Canon G10 and G9 before it (which the Pen replaced) one of the selling features was the fact that both of those cameras had a built in finder while still being very small and pocketable in size.  In reality I found that I rarely would use it though.  The field of view through the finder didn't match what the camera took (I think it might have been 93% or 94%) and it was really quite small and a little tough to see through.  So I usually just got used to framing up shots using the LCD.  So when the Pen came out without a finder I thought "no big deal".  Maybe it was because the Canon's (especially the G10) have a superior LCD on the back but I've now been in a number of situations where I was simply guessing at composition with the Pen.  In bright sunlight it just becomes a complete crapshoot as to what you'll get.  Olympus let us down a bit with the quality of the LCD which can wash out so much that it becomes almost unusable.  I'll bet when the next version of this camera comes out that is one of the major upgrades.  But in the mean time how to deal with this problem?  I've found a pretty good solution in the Hoodman HoopLoupe 3.0.  (Please note that I have no affiliation with Hoodman and purchased my equipment myself.)  The HoodLoupe is basically a loupe that you can hold up against an LCD screen of up to 3" in size and peer through it's viewfinder to get a magnified view of the display.  It's also has a +/- 3 diopter to allow adjustments for up with less than perfect eyesight.  With the Pen in bright sunlight it's a pretty good solution.  The loupe comes with a lanyard to hang it around your neck when you're not using it or you can buy some optional (and way overpriced) rubber bungie cords and fasten it to the camera.  I have the cords but don't know yet if that's the best way to use it or not.  But in bright sunlight it does allow you to bring the camera up to your eye just light a DSLR and compose a proper shot and review it all without too many issues.  The loupe and bungies together cost about $100.  Probably overpriced but it is effective and I think I'll be happy I made the purchase.  I'll post some actual pictures of my Pen and HoodLoupe a little later when I get a chance to shoot them.

Enjoy!

Tom Laux

September 21, 2009

Picture of the Day - September 18

This little brown butterfly was taken the first day I got my new Olympus Pen camera.  I was just out on the back deck noodling around with it, learning all the controls and such.  I love shooting macros and will probably invent in a micro four thirds macro lens as soon as one hits the market, but for now this is about as close as I can get.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
September 18, 2009

Picture of the Day - September 17

Went back into my archives to find a favorite to post for the picture of the day.  This was shot a couple of years back using every bit of length I could get out of my lenses.  That meant my Sigma 100-400mm f/4-5.6 at 400mm plus a Sigma 1.4x extender while being shot on a Canon 40D with it's 1.6x crop factor.  This gives a 35mm equivalent length of 896mm.  Taken on a very clear and bright fall night at f/8, 1/350 sec using ISO 400 using a cable release and mirror lockup.  The RAW image was processed three times, once for the shadows, once for the mid-tones and lastly for the highlights and them combined in Photoshop CS3.

It's still one of my favorite images.

Enjoy!
Tom Laux
September 17, 2009